good article- should spark dome debate

Interesting read. Wrestler's aren't ruining MMA, they're just making fights a bit slower. Takedowns score more with the judges than anything else, but there shouldn't be as much praise given to takedowns.

IMO, takedowns should only score if you advance your position and/or land some effective strikes/ try to finish the fight with strikes or submission attempts.

Submission attempts from the bottom should carry more weight as well. If the fighter on top is 'controlling where the action takes place', if he/she is getting caught in sub attempts, then it is them who are in the 'worst' position.

Recent example - Karakhanyan v Warren last night at Bellator 19. Warren had some excellent takedowns, but at no point did he look like he was going to end the fight. Karakhanyan had some great submission attempts, and credit to Warren for getting out of them, but even though Warren determined where the fight was happening, it was Karakhanyan who looked closer to finishing the fight.

Maybe full guard should be considered as a 'neutral' position ie. regardless of how you got into that position, no one is at an advantage, whether on top or on the bottom. Just because you're on top, does not mean you shold automatically be in the better position.

Also, should sub attempts count more to the judges than strikes, considering it's much harder to lock in and finish a sub compared to just striking your opponent?

Yup, as I have said all along "effort to finish" should trump "control"

I don't think that wrestling is ruining MMA as such, more the 'lay and pray' technique. I enjoy a fight where there is dominance and GnP utilised, but the whole, take down, followed by 4minutes of laying on top of someone is pretty fucking boring.

I agree that there shouldn't be so much emphasis on control without anything else. The cage has made it so much easier for wrestlers to control other fighters, and there has to be a case for refs to stand the action up a lot more. I would love to see a 'yellow card' system brought into the UFC.

I'm sure I read a while ago,that the reason the yellow card system can never happen in the UFC is something to do with,that it's illegal in the US to take away money from a fighter who has agreed on a price to fight or something like that and fighters can only get fined for breach of contract or disciplinary reasons and not because they slowed down the action in a fight.



Maybe half point deductions or something like that could be an option.

You're probably right Payne, but, surely as these fighters are employed by UFC, UFC could have this drawn up in their contract? Not too sure about the half point deduction working, lets face it, there are enough controversies about scoring as it is.

yeah your probably right about the half point deduction.

This is probably a problem that will sort itself out eventually as the sport evolves and all fighters become more well rounded,I mean in the short time MMA has been around,certain styles have been the dominant style for a while untill and expert in another feild works it out and starts implementing his skills on them and so on and so on.

I'm pretty sure that in 10 years we will be looking back at some of todays greats and thinking,shit how were they classed as so good while being so 1 dimensional in whatever there base sport is,compared to the fighters that will be showing off there stuff then,who probably won't rely on one base sport,they will be training all of them from day 1 of training as a kid,like we keep saying this sport is still in it's infancy and I think alot of these problems will sort themselves out eventually without any major rule changes,it will be fighters styles that change the way fights are fought.